Tshwane denies claims it attempted to sabotage elections

The City of Tshwane has denied claims that it attempted to “sabotage” Wednesday’s national and provincial elections.

This comes after some parts of the city experienced service interruptions on election day, including a power outage in Mamelodi and Moreleta Park, and power and water supply interruptions in Soshanguve.

No sabotage

City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said all the interruptions were resolved.

“There is a narrative that there was some form of sabotage in the city. I can, without a shadow of a doubt and with any fear of contradiction, say that there was no sabotage in those parts of the city. Those interruptions that occurred were as a result of system failure or cable theft.

“The city’s technicians attended urgently to those challenges, and they were resolved. To insinuate that there was any form of sabotage is dangerous and irresponsible,” Bokaba said.

Bokaba said these types of incidents are a daily occurrence in the City of Tshwane.

“So, please disregard any mention of sabotage related to elections and blamed apportioned to any political party.

“The City of Tshwane officials are apolitical. They execute their functions daily without regard to any party for which they vote. We execute our functions responsibly as officials, not attached to any party,” Bokaba said.

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Election results

Meanwhile, the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has officially announced its first set of results as vote counting began just after midnight after the 29 May elections.

The live results, which are trickling in as vote counting continues, indicate the African National Congress (ANC) is in the lead. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is in second position and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in third. The newly formed Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party is among the top parties on the leaderboard.

Extraordinarily long queues characterised the 2024 provincial and general elections, with millions of South Africans gathering early on Wednesday morning to cast their ballot in the country’s seventh democratic elections.

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